The Night of the Full Moon Festival
by zuuzuu
Summary: The Full Moon Festival is approaching Mineral Town and the girls ready themselves for the romantic night. Claire, especially, prepares. -Pseudo-longshot? Undecided-


_Original Title: The Matchmaker and the Night of the Full Moon Festival_

**I do not own Harvest Moon. Please enjoy the read!**

* * *

On a cloudless night on Fall 10, Claire was getting ready to start cooking in her new, fully furnished kitchen when she heard several knocks at her door. "Oh, it's so hard to see Kai go every year," Popuri wailed into the farmer's face as soon as the door creaked open. Claire blinked several times and raised her eyebrows. She stepped back to let the all the women and greeted, "It's good to see you guys too." Each of the women brought in the cool, night air into the house along with other fresh scents as they all chattered like restless birds.

The farmer shut the door and squeezed through the ladies to throw some lumber into her fireplace. The nights were getting cold as the season progressed. Ann and Karen lazily leaned on the kitchen counters while Elli, Popuri, and Mary each took a seat at the table. "I guess I don't need to invite you guys over anymore. You'll all just barge in huh?" Claire grinned. Elli began to blush from embarrassment and the others laughed. But Claire just waved her hand; it wasn't a problem. She enjoyed their company.

Popuri was excitedly fixing her dress, "So what's on the menu tonight?" Ann rounded the table's corner and nudged her, "This ain't a restaurant. I'll help cook your dinner." Claire looked up and tried to wave the red-head away. "No please. Don't worry about it," the farmer said with a frown. Karen rested her elbows on the counter and laughed, "I'll take tempura." She pointed at the fridge, "You got all you need right?"

Claire opened her fridge and looked about for a moment. "Yeah…" But then Ann butted the girl out of the way. "Let me help," she demanded and started to take out all the ingredients.

Before they knew it, all of the women were crammed into the kitchen busily trying to get around one another and reaching for all the utensils and food. They were trying to make their own dinners! "You guys!" Claire yelled exasperated. None of them seemed to hear her and continued to frantically cook. The farmer scratched her head and let out a tired sigh. _Well…I guess I could do other things then_, she thought. She strayed away from the women and looked intently at her calendar. A certain date caught her eye and she stared at it hard, stabbing it with her stubby finger violently. She was thinking.

Quickly, she rushed over to her fridge and sighed gratefully when she saw that none of her gifts were taken. She packed all that she needed into her rucksack. "Claire! What'cha takin'?" It was Popuri.

Claire whipped around quickly, fumbling with her rucksack's opening. "I-I'm doing nothing," she sputtered. The farmer threw the bag on the ground behind her grandfather clock. The other girls stared at her with their eyebrows raised.

"Oh! I see…" Karen's eyes narrowed and her beautiful lips turned into a mischievous grin. Popuri hopped out of the kitchen and bounded toward Claire. "Those were gifts!" she yelled happily. The pink-haired girl threw her arms around the farmer's neck. Elli tried to peer behind the clock to see what was in the bag, inconspicuously. Mary fixed her glasses and asked with interest, "You have a boyfriend Claire?"

"Well of course she does!" answered Ann. "Just look at that bed," she observed, pointing at the big bed in the corner of the house. "That can definitely fit two people in there!" Claire immediately began to blush madly and sent a light smack to the back of Ann's head. "No," she simply stated. Her face felt hot. Elli, bless her, took Ann aside and chided, "Don't embarrass her like that."

Ann's face flushed like a kid caught in trouble. Claire felt the tables turn and playfully questioned, "What about you and Cliff though, Ann? You guys look mighty fine together." She nudged the waitress. A huge grin covered the farmer's face.

"Claire! Stop it," Elli scolded, now turning on the farmer. But the blonde only took notice of Ann's face, getting redder by the second. "Ha! I knew it!" She slapped her knee and began to laugh good-naturedly. The other girls started to join in the teasing while Elli became embarrassed, twice in one night, by her childish friends.

The night passed quickly as the girls sprawled all around the hard wooden floor, already finished with their dinners with the television buzzing and the fireplace cackling. Karen's dinner had turned out horribly, so the girls had to prepare an extra dish. Their plates were stacking in the kitchen sink, waiting to be washed but none of the girls wanted to get up to do it. They were perfectly happy sitting around and talking stories. Mary had unintentionally started it.

"So, Mother has told me that you," the librarian looked over at Karen, "continually see Rick every morning." It was a simple statement but Claire was nodding sagely. "Yeah, I see you two there all the time. What exactly are you talking about anyway?" She started laughing heartily as she remembered something, "Rick tells me he goes shopping every morning but I don't think I ever seen him go into the store." Popuri was squealing with delight to know that her brother was in a relationship, "Details! Details!" Ann winked playfully at Karen.

Poor Karen's face turned pink and she turned away from her friends. "I-It's nothing; we're just talkin'." Mary cocked her head, "About what, I wonder…" She let her voice trail off innocently. But Karen then brought her face up to Mary's, wanting to get the conversation away from herself and said, "And I hear that Gray goes around to the library a lot too." Mary started to stutter as her face turned bright red, "N-nothing is g-going on. He only looks at the books!"

The girls laughed while Mary tried to deny her feelings for the blacksmith apprentice. Claire knew that Gray went to the library for something else.

"Your boys sure do visit you a lot," Ann said wistfully and stared out into space. Even though Cliff stayed at the Inn, it was rare that he would be caught seen with Ann. Claire sympathetically patted the girl's knee, "Cliff's kind of shy, but I can tell he likes you." _He's all you talk about after all_, the farmer thought as well, but she wasn't about to tell Ann that yet. Ann, forgetting that she was supposed to be embarrassed, lifted her head slightly and asked, "You really think so?" All of the girls started to crowd around her and reassured her that he did.

Popuri started to giggle, "Elli's lucky that she gets to see the Doctor every second of every day." Elli's face jerked toward them and fiddled with her dress. Her face was beet-red. "B-But he doesn't even-"

"Notice you?" Claire offered somberly. Elli wore a pained expression on her face and gave her friend a menacing . "Yes," was all that she growled. Her dress was balled up within her fists and they trembled slightly. The farmer saw, often, how the Doctor ignored the nurse's attempts to get close. Sometimes, it was so painful to watch the two, that even Claire got annoyed and frustrated.

The farmer continued to stare at Elli with a blank face but then gave a soft smile. _Should I tell them?_, Claire thought. "You guys have absolutely no idea what the boys say about you…" she muttered finally. The girls glanced at each other, confused.

"What are you talking about?" Elli asked suddenly. Everyone leaned forward, expectant for an answer. "You gotta tell us Claire!" Karen and Ann practically shouted. But the farmer only turned her attention to the dishes, "Ugh, I have to go clean them." She leaned on her knee and pushed herself up. "Wait!" Popuri yelled and grabbed onto the girl's hand. "Tell us," Mary said quietly.

Claire laughed guiltily at her friends' desperation. She knew each of their problems; after all, they had always gone to her to vent. Claire was honored to know that they would trust her with such sensitive topics. Elli couldn't seem to get the Doctor to acknowledge her. Mary and Gray were both too shy to tell each other their feelings. Karen and Rick truly didn't even seem to know what the other was thinking. Ann was too stubborn to admit her feelings most of the time, and Cliff had no experience with girls. And Popuri might have had it the hardest of all; unable to just go down a street or room to see the one she loved, as the others could, but she had to wait for and honestly trust Kai. She had always been the one who tried hardest to be happy whenever she talked to Claire.

_They're all so adorable_, she thought. _They really care about their men… _Her eyebrows furrowed a bit as she began to imagine how they would leave her eventually. It was almost inevitable. Her smile remained on her face though there was a sadness as well. Watching all of her friends' eager and desperate faces, Claire tilted her head and tried to push her bangs behind her ear.

"They love you."

* * *

"See you later, Claire." Each of the girls embraced their friend as they left. It was already early the next morning; the sun had barely woken up from behind the horizon. Birds were chirping loudly from the apple tree and the sky was a painted a pretty yellow-orange. The young women had talked all night and into the morning. When they had found out that they had overstayed their welcome, the girls had prepared a sleepover for the night.

From the entrance of her farm, Claire waved at her friends as they giggled and hung off each others shoulders and arms until they parted. They were extraordinarily happy. _Yeah…I'll miss them when they get married_, Claire thought and slowly turned her back to them so she could watch the sun rise.

* * *

**Wow, that was long! Thank you and congratulations for reading to the end. **


End file.
